Qunli Stormwater Park: A Green Sponge for a Water-Resilient City
Contemporary cities are not resilient when faced with inundations of surface water. This project showcase is a stormwater park, which acts as a green sponge that cleanses and stores urban stormwater, recharges aquifer, protects native habitats, facilitates recreational and aesthetic experience, in all these ways fostering urban development. It showcase a high performance but low maintenance solution replicable worldwide.
In mid-2009, the landscape architect was commissioned to design a park of 34 hectares right in the middle of Qunli New Town at the eastern outskirts of Haerbin in northern China. More than one third of a million people are expected to live there. Waterlogging has occurred frequently in the past, while at the same time the ground water table continues to drop due to its overuse. The landscape architect proposed to transform the area into an urban stormwater park that will provide multiple ecosystems services.
Several design strategies and elements were employed: The central part of the existing site is left along to allow the natural habitats to evolve; Cut-and-fill strategy is used to create an outer ring of mounds and ponds that acts as a stormwater filtrating and cleansing buffer zone for the core wetland. A network of paths and skywalks links the ring of ponds and mounds, allowing visitors to have a walking-through-forest experience. Platforms and seats are put near the ponds to enable people to have close contact with nature.
Tipologia | Parcs urbans i metropolitans |
Promotor | Qunli New Town Development co. |
Promoció | P?ca |
Localització | heilongjiang, harbin, Xina |
Àrea | 340000 m² |
Cost | 20 €/m² |
Any inici | 2009 |
Any finalització | 2011 |